I recently came up with an idea for a game after 4hr scrolling through 9GAG (Yes, 9GAG) and I'm into it. It's an pixel-art style 2D top-down RPG with class advancement system and that's all I came up with at time of writing.

The problem is I don't know where to start. Engine, platform, programming skill, programming language, and other stuffs. After looking up the forum I saw choices like Unity3D and UE4 but my laptop is the low-medium tier and I don't know whether it can run the dev kit. Also I want the game to be light (around 2GB RAM and a medium-tier GPU as "Recommended System Requirement") and my programming language is Python 3.

As the topic said, where should I start? And should I go read some (a lot) of book?

My Twitter is at @Chr0n10, Discord is at Celestial#6261 if anyone is up for high-speed (and/or agressive) discussions.

Thanks in advance.

Sorry for the long post, here's a potato (in attachment, perhaps?)

17 minutes ago, ConsolaLarry said:

and my programming language is Python 3.

Panda3D is a old engine that is code only with some 3rd party editors. It can be used to make some very decent games as it supports optimizations; it's the best python engine. Considering your limits this is what I would recommend. It's for 2D and 3D games.

Making mobile games is going to be a bit tricky if you use Panda3D, so if you plan on a mobile game consider a specialized mobile game engine instead.

Pygame also works but has a lot of outdated code. It's a 2D focused engine.

20 minutes ago, ConsolaLarry said:

I saw choices like Unity3D and UE4 but my laptop is the low-medium tier and I don't know whether it can run the dev kit.

Both Unity and Unreal can run on a laptop this low, I have one I keep for testing games and it works. The problem is what those engines you will be tempted to do fancy things that will lead to a lot of freezing.

You can use them but do so at your own risk and know that Unreal is around 2GB to download the core and more than 10GB when installed. Unity is lighter with less than 200MB for the core and around 1GB when installed. These are rough values I downloaded more than the core for each.

Welcome to game development.

Since you're starting from zero expereince, I would suggest GameMaker 2 which will allow your game to run on desktop, and mobile platforms.

https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/features

If you're looking at getting into programming, maybe look at Unity 3D with C#. 2D games are not normally graphic intense unless you have a lot of moving sprites, particle and lighting effects on screen. Standard 2D games like you would see in the SNES era are minimal resource usage with today's technology.

Just to give you another option, have you considered RPGmakerMV?

8 hours ago, Rutin said:

Since you're starting from zero expereince, I would suggest GameMaker 2 which will allow your game to run on desktop, and mobile platforms.

https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/features

Well, I saw GameMaker before and got to fuss around aimlessly when I was like 8 with a Flash game dream. Got back to it last year and I'm kinda disappointed. Can't remember why, just it was worse than what I expected

19 minutes ago, Infinisearch said:

Just to give you another option, have you considered RPGmakerMV?

Gonna look into that.

8 hours ago, Scouting Ninja said:

Panda3D is a old engine that is code only with some 3rd party editors. It can be used to make some very decent games as it supports optimizations; it's the best python engine. Considering your limits this is what I would recommend. It's for 2D and 3D games.

Pygame also works but has a lot of outdated code. It's a 2D focused engine.

Both Unity and Unreal can run on a laptop this low, I have one I keep for testing games and it works. The problem is what those engines you will be tempted to do fancy things that will lead to a lot of freezing..

4GB RAM, core i5 5th gen 1.80GHz overclock to 2.8 and on-board GPU. Let's pray.

8 hours ago, Scouting Ninja said:

Welcome to game development.

And honestly, I expected some roasting like "Don't dream big and fail hard". I'm actually kinda happy being greeted this warmly. Thanks guys

Gamemaker 2 is new it was released this year.  I don't think there is a free edition (yet) like with the last version.  However version 2 has some very nice additions that fit well with your target game type.  You should go to the website and check it out.

If OpenGL fits in your picture, there is https://moderngl.readthedocs.io/en/stable/index.html

It's an Python wrapper to make it more approachable.

Just picked the link up from the forum here (sorry, don't remember who gave it), and saved it for personal future use. No actual experience with it.

I made up my mind to use Unity. Hope this isn't a bad choice.... Still..... Worst case scenario would be me grinding another programming language so yea

A CHALLENGER HAS ARRIVED! FITE!

9 hours ago, ConsolaLarry said:

4GB RAM, core i5 5th gen 1.80GHz overclock to 2.8 and on-board GPU. Let's pray.

6 hours ago, ConsolaLarry said:

I made up my mind to use Unity.

That might be kind of rough.  I haven't used Unity in a long time but you might be in for some long load and compile times.  Could you post your exact CPU?  I don't recall any i5's at 1.8Ghz, especially one that is overclockable.  But you'll want to upgrade your RAM to at least 8gigs, especially if you want to keep tutorials in browser windows open at the same time as unity.

Well since you know programming you are definitely not at ground zero, like I am.

I think I spent like 2 months going back and forth about which game engine to go with.

There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a game engine:

1. Do you want to pay money up front?  Game Maker Studio cost at least $100 for the Desktop license and $1500 for all licenses (platforms to release on.)  Godot cost nothing, as it is open source. (Game Maker is not free when it comes to selling your game.)

1. How much do you care about the quality of the learning materials and the overall size of the community of users for a game engine?  For example, Game Maker Studio has way better learning material and much much more user-based - support than Godot...at least from my limited experience.

1. What games might you want to make in the future?  Taking the time to learn Game Maker Studio is going to be a waste of time if you want to do a 3D game in the future.  As you may know, Game Maker Studio isn’t for 3D games.  Unity and Unreal are for 3D games, but they can also do anything that Game Maker Studio can do (they are just not setup to make 2D as easily as Game Maker.)  Same goes with taking the time to learn any RPG game engine...what if your next game is not an RPG?

1. How popular or active is the game engine? There are tons of game engines out there, but most of them are kind of old and outdated, so you have to be careful with not choosing some game engine that is a dying dinosaur.  Who wants to master a game engine that will go extinct in 5 years?

I think these four questions can help you decide which game engine to go with.  I myself went with Unreal.